One of the things that most appeals to me about watercolor on paper is the interplay of the water that carries the pigment with the surface on which the work takes place. And it does take place -- as a body moving, dwelling for a time on a surface, a sort of dance. The "finished" work is a trace that remains after the work of water and the artist's hand is done. The work is not so much the application of pigment to paper as the release of water bearing pigment to move on a surface, coaxing it to bend light in ways that invite participant observers (including the one doing the painting) to see things that are not there.

For this piece, I placed an Arches block of 140 lb cold pressed paper upright on an easel and painted it with water. I then applied cobalt blue across the top, allowing it to flow down. As a few thin lines of blue neared the bottom, I inverted the block and applied cadmium yellow across the top, then inverted it again. I mixed a touch of cadmium red with cobalt blue and brushed some of that mixture into the field of blue that was now at the top of the page. By this time, I was seeing aspens like the ones I remember from southern Colorado and northern New Mexico near where I grew up. I set to work with a 2" brush, using paint remaining on my pallette to add depth and accentuate patterns that had formed as fields of color flowed together. Paint continued to flow on the damp surface, as it does, and I added finishing touches as the surface dried.